When will the kingdom of God come? The kingdom of God and the Coming of the Messiah are prophesied in the Old Testament and are major themes throughout the New Testament. The Pharisees asked Yeshua about when the kingdom of God would come, but unfortunately they had the wrong focus:

Now having been questioned by the Pharisees as to when the kingdom of God was coming, He answered them and said, “The kingdom of God is not coming with signs to be observed; nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or, ‘There it is!’ For behold, the kingdom of God is in your midst.” – Luke 17:20-21 

Yeshua understood His audience and He realized that they were searching for something good, the kingdom of God, but they were missing the bigger picture, the King of the kingdom of God. 

The main focus of the kingdom of God is not simply a beautiful place which is free of enemies, but rather, the reality of God’s kingdom is being with Him. It is about relationship with God and not solely about location. The King was in their midst but many of them were unable to recognize Him at that time.

The Coming Of The King

Having established that the kingdom of God was centered on the King Himself, Yeshua then went on to explain to His disciples about the timing for the establishment of the kingdom of God in relation to His Second Coming:

And He said to the disciples, “The days will come when you will long to see one of the days of the Son of Man, and you will not see it. They will say to you, ‘Look there! Look here!’ Do not go away, and do not run after them. For just like the lightning, when it flashes out of one part of the sky, shines to the other part of the sky, so will the Son of Man be in His day. But first He must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation. And just as it happened in the days of Noah, so it will be also in the days of the Son of Man: they were eating, they were drinking, they were marrying, they were being given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all. It was the same as happened in the days of Lot: they were eating, they were drinking, they were buying, they were selling, they were planting, they were building; but on the day that Lot went out from Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all. It will be just the same on the day that the Son of Man is revealed. – Luke 17:22-30

In these verses Yeshua spoke of Himself in the third person as the Son of Man, which is one of the titles of the Messiah (Daniel 7:13). He described how the Son of Man must first suffer and be rejected by this generation (obviously referring to His death by crucifixion) and then provided two examples from biblical history (Noah and Lot) of how He will ultimately be revealed at a time of great judgment on the earth. Why does Yeshua describe His Second Coming to establish the kingdom of God in connection to the days of Noah and the days of Lot? 

As In The Days Of Noah & Lot

The events that occurred in both the days of Noah and the days of Lot were acts of judgment which were poured out on the people of the earth without much warning. When the rains started in the days of Noah, they continued for forty days and forty nights. The flood waters rose and destroyed everything on the earth. When God poured out fire and wrath on the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, it was a day like any other day. The immediate and sudden nature of how Yeshua will return at His second coming seem to be the main reason that He used these two illustrations, but there appears to be one other factor.

In both examples of the days of Noah and the days of Lot the sin of man had reached a fulness which God could no longer ignore. In the days of Noah we read about the following conditions:

Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. – Gen. 6:5

The evil and wickedness of humanity had reached such a deplorable state that God had determined that all of the living beings and creatures of the earth had to be destroyed. The result was the global flood with only Noah and the contents of the ark being preserved.

In the days of Lot, the focus was on two specific cities of the earth, Sodom and Gomorrah. Since Lot was actually living in the city of Sodom, this name is generally used when referring to the judgment at that time and to those cities. The account of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah is found in this week’s Torah Portion reading.

The Situation In Sodom

It was during that special visit of the LORD together with two angels as they came to the camp of Abraham and ate a meal in his presence that the LORD spoke to Abraham of the dire situation in Sodom and Gomorrah:

The LORD said, “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do, since Abraham will surely become a great and mighty nation, and in him all the nations of the earth will be blessed? For I have chosen him, so that he may command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the LORD by doing righteousness and justice, so that the LORD may bring upon Abraham what He has spoken about him.” And the LORD said, “The outcry of Sodom and Gomorrah is indeed great, and their sin is exceedingly grave. I will go down now, and see if they have done entirely according to its outcry, which has come to Me; and if not, I will know.” – Gen. 18:17-21 

Abraham was God’s chosen man to be a blessing to all of the nations of the earth. It was because of God’s special relationship with Abraham that He explained to Abraham that the sin in Sodom and Gomorrah had reached its peak.

When God broached this subject of the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah with Abraham, He explained to Abraham the great “outcry” and the heaviness of their sin (Gen. 18:20). The LORD said that He actually wanted to check and see if the outcry was as bad as what He had heard. 

The Outcry of Evil

The word for outcry which is used in verse twenty-one is the Hebrew word צעקה – Tsa’ah’ka and simply means outcry or a cry of distress. It is the same root word used in Genesis chapter four when Cain killed Abel:

Then the LORD said to Cain, “Where is Abel your brother?” And he said, “I do not know. Am I my brother’s keeper?” He said, “What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood is crying to Me from the ground. Now you are cursed from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand. – Gen. 4:9-11

The wickedness of Cain by murdering his brother produced an outcry to the LORD. The innocent blood of Abel is described in these verses as having a voice that was crying out, צועקים – Tso’ah’kim, to God. The shedding of innocent blood produces an outcry to God and He hears it.

We do not know the entire scope of degradation and debauchery that occurred in the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, however, we are given a glimpse into the moral collapse of the society in Sodom during the days of Lot:

Now the two angels came to Sodom in the evening as Lot was sitting in the gate of Sodom. When Lot saw them, he rose to meet them and bowed down with his face to the ground. And he said, “Now behold, my lords, please turn aside into your servant’s house, and spend the night, and wash your feet; then you may rise early and go on your way.” They said however, “No, but we shall spend the night in the square.” Yet he urged them strongly, so they turned aside to him and entered his house; and he prepared a feast for them, and baked unleavened bread, and they ate. Before they lay down, the men of the city, the men of Sodom, surrounded the house, both young and old, all the people from every quarter; and they called to Lot and said to him, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us that we may have relations with them.” But Lot went out to them at the doorway, and shut the door behind him, and said, “Please, my brothers, do not act wickedly. Now behold, I have two daughters who have not had relations with man; please let me bring them out to you, and do to them whatever you like; only do nothing to these men, inasmuch as they have come under the shelter of my roof.” But they said, “Stand aside.” Furthermore, they said, “This one came in as an alien, and already he is acting like a judge; now we will treat you worse than them.” So they pressed hard against Lot and came near to break the door. But the men reached out their hands and brought Lot into the house with them, and shut the door. They struck the men who were at the doorway of the house with blindness, both small and great, so that they wearied themselves trying to find the doorway.

Then the two men said to Lot, “Whom else have you here? A son-in-law, and your sons, and your daughters, and whomever you have in the city, bring them out of the place; for we are about to destroy this place, because their outcry has become so great before the LORD that the LORD has sent us to destroy it.” – Gen. 19:1-13

The LORD had sent His angels to confirm the outcry of the sin of the city of Sodom and it was confirmed as such. 

Defining A Lost Generation

The severity of the depravity of the people living in Sodom was almost beyond belief. When the angels had come into Lot’s house to spend the night, we are told of the men who had come seeking to have sexual relations with the two guests of Lot: “the men of the city, the men of Sodom, surrounded the house, both young and old, all the people from every quarter;” (Gen. 19:4). It was both the younger and the older generation of men from every part of the city. Every part of society had become corrupt and had lost all sense of morality. Even Lot, who was counted as being worthy of being rescued from the judgment upon the city, was willing to give his own two virgin daughters to the depraved men of the city to do with them as they pleased. The perversity of the culture had even entered his own heart. 

The angels had seen enough after spending a few short hours in the city of Sodom. They confirmed the outcry that had reached the ears of the LORD as they witnessed the debauchery of Sodom first hand. There was nothing left to do except to remove Lot and his family from that city and to follow through with the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah:

The sun had risen over the earth when Lot came to Zoar. Then the LORD rained on Sodom and Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the LORD out of heaven, and He overthrew those cities, and all the valley, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew on the ground. – Gen. 19:23-25

Sodom and Gomorrah were incinerated with nothing to be left from these wicked cities. 

The Standard Of Evil

The outcry of the sin of the people of Sodom and Gomorrah produced a deafening sound in the ears of God to the point where He had to act. The heaviness of the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah would be a standard of wickedness that is continually used throughout the Bible. We see an example of this in the book of Jeremiah: 

Also among the prophets of Jerusalem I have seen a horrible thing: the committing of adultery and walking in falsehood; and they strengthen the hands of evildoers, so that no one has turned back from his wickedness. All of them have become to Me like Sodom, and her inhabitants like Gomorrah. – Jer. 23:14 

The sin and evil of Sodom and Gomorrah represent the “redline” of wickedness when there is nothing else to do but anticipate judgment from God. It appears that this same wicked redline will be approached before the Messiah returns to this earth.

Longing For The Days Of Messiah

When Yeshua described His Coming and the establishment of the kingdom of God in Luke chapter seventeen, He warned His disciples that it would be just as it happened in the days of Noah and in the days of Lot. Yeshua also emphasized the difficult nature of the days before He comes:

And He said to the disciples, “The days will come when you will long to see one of the days of the Son of Man, and you will not see it…” – Luke 17:22

The more that evil increases in this world, the more we who know the Messiah will long to see one of the days of the Son of Man. 

No matter what evil may come to this earth or how depraved humanity becomes, we need to remember what God has done in the past in the days of Noah and in the days of Lot so as to be confident of the judgment to come at the Second Coming of the Messiah: 

Know this first of all, that in the last days mockers will come with their mocking, following after their own lusts, and saying, “Where is the promise of His coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all continues just as it was from the beginning of creation.” For when they maintain this, it escapes their notice that by the word of God the heavens existed long ago and the earth was formed out of water and by water, through which the world at that time was destroyed, being flooded with water. But by His word the present heavens and earth are being reserved for fire, kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men. – 2 Peter 3:3-7

The coming of the Messiah will be preceded by the heinous sins of men and the mocking voices of this world against the plans of God, however, fire and judgment will silence the mocking voices and cleanse this world from evil.

Judgment & Salvation

When the Messiah comes to establish the kingdom of God it will be a terrible day, just like it was in the days of Noah and in the days of Lot, when great judgment will be poured out on the inhabitants of the earth but it will also be a day of salvation and reward for those who know the Messiah:

Then the seventh angel sounded; and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Messiah; and He will reign forever and ever.” And the twenty-four elders, who sit on their thrones before God, fell on their faces and worshiped God, saying, “We give You thanks, O Lord God, the Almighty, who are and who were, because You have taken Your great power and have begun to reign. And the nations were enraged, and Your wrath came, and the time came for the dead to be judged, and the time to reward Your bond-servants the prophets and the saints and those who fear Your name, the small and the great, and to destroy those who destroy the earth.” – Revelation 11:15-18

The evil in this world never goes unnoticed by the God of the universe. God sees, God hears, God knows those who are His and there will come a day when great judgment and comforting salvation will meet together on this earth when the Messiah comes again. 

All of the pain and all of the evil in this world should only remind us that the Messiah is coming. We should never lose heart or think for a moment that God does not see all that is broken around us. Our greatest hope and our greatest comfort is knowing that Yeshua will come again. 

Maranatha –  בוא ישוע – Bo Yeshua – Come Yeshua! 

Shabbat Shalom!

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*All Scripture take from NASB Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation

Torah Portion: Gen. 18:1-22:24

Haftara: 2 Kings 4:1-37

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